The incorporation of flavoring materials into tobacco products has been widely practiced in the art for many years. The traditional method employed for incorporating these materials has been the direct application of flavorants to the tobacco. In the case of smoking products such as filter cigarettes, flavoring materials have also been applied to the combustible paper wrap which envelops the tobacco and to the filter tow from which the filter is made. Each of these methods leads directly to flavoring of the tobacco smoke that reaches the mouth of the smoker.
Another technique for providing flavoring effects in tobacco products involves the application of flavoring materials to the mouthpieces associated with those products so that the flavors are transferred to the mouth of the smoker separately from the tobacco smoke. This technique is exemplified by the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,507,925 which is directed to a cigarette that is provided with a flavored coating on the exterior surface of the end that is to be contacted by the smoker's lips. The specific flavoring materials disclosed include licorice, peppermint, spearmint and cinnamon applied in the form of a gelatin base.
A further disclosure of interest is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,033,791 which involves the application of a "lip-proof" composition to the mouth end of a cigarette. This composition is based on nitrocellulose in combination with a suitable flattening agent and the patent teaches incidentally that aromatic substances such as menthol, eucalyptus, oil of cloves and tobacco-aroma may be incorporated into the composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,700 discloses flavor enhanced cigars and cigarettes which have water soluble salts of glutamic acid or 5'-nucleotides applied to the mouth end thereof. The salts are typically applied to the exterior surface of the mouthpiece tipping sheet.
A thermoplastic cigar tip is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,483,872 and 3,589,371 which is molded from a polyolefin resin that contains a suitable flavoring agent. Among the flavoring agents disclosed are artificial coffee flavor, fruit flavors, liqueur flavors, spices, aromatics vanilla, maple menthol, peppermint licorice as well as synthetic sweeteners such as saccharin, sodium saccharin, calcium cyclamate and sodium cyclamate.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,123,592 and 4,184,495 is a process for incorporating volatile flavorants into paper such as cigarette tipping to produce a flavorant-impregnated paper that does not release the flavorant until the paper is contacted with either heat or moisture. The volatile flavorants mentioned in these patents are benzaldehyde, methyl salicylate, cinnamaldehyde, acetophenone, menthol, anisole, amyl acetate, eucalyptol, caryone, anethole and fruit extracts (e.g., lime, orange and cherry).